Itäminen #1: Sydänkärpänen

Tomorrow's the first of my Hiidentie performance series. The first one's called "Sydänkärpänen" (Heart Bug). On my flickr pages you can see some of how it was made. I will post video here after the show.

Meet you by the old dead tree

Aika: ti 24.6.2008 klo 16
Paikka: Google maps link eli tässä (katso kuvaa):


Some of the messages that went in this time:

- An amazing, amazing drawing by a girl who lives in Salo. The sydänkärpänen is her invention. "Olipa kerran pieni kylä. Siellä asui outoja eläimiä ja hyönteisiä."
- Pulmunen
- Hyasintti
- Koivu (horseshoe drawing) 16:00 xxx
- Hahtuva, joka lentää tuulessa
- Kesäkuun alussa laitumet ovat huikean vihreät, mutta karjaa ei näy missään
- Lämpö ja aurinko, kasvun voima! Kuumuus ja paahde, tappava kuivuus!


The idea behind itäminen, as visible in the flickr photos, is that I collect suggestions ("seeds") from people, plant those pieces of paper somewhere along hiidentie, and then return a couple of weeks later to make a small performance with the ideas that have come up. I can't guarantee that everything that is planted will bear fruit; but if it dies, it will at least create fertilizer for the other ideas.

The people who make suggestions don't necessarily get to see the performance, distance and holidays being what they are. I'm still interested in the energy this sort of long-distance performance interactivity seems to be creating. The opening day was very warm, both in weather and in mood, and it seems to have carried over.

The overall project is Taiteen Tiet (art roads), and it's a long-term environmental/site-specific art project in Finland, based around the town of Salo. Each year a stretch of road is more or less adopted by some artists, who make installations/performances for that place. I wanted to stick more with performance than installation, but I also wanted there to be some kind of element involved so if you can't be there for the performance, you get to take part in some way, and interact with me (and me with you) in a relaxed fashion.

The place marker and mascot

Some days it feels like the pieces all flow together; the more I tweak how one seed interacts with the overall idea, the more it can include or exclude another, and the concept remains terribly fluid. I want to be able to include everything; I also want to streamline it to a simple idea. I want to just say "this is what your crazy collective consciousness gave me," and I also want to say "I'm a-puttin' the art in this here performance, I'm going to organize it all so beautifully." To be honest, what has come to my mind with Sydänkärpänen feels a little bit silly, but on the other hand that's no fault of mine: I'm just a performer taking instructions here, right?